The dispute about the Missouri River plan

According to “Corps is ready to adopt river plan,” written by Bill Lambrecht, the Army Corps is preparing for setting reservoirs to avoid the drought, but this decision will change the flow channels and hurt the lives around the Missouri River, and then have influence on the economy of the Missouri River. They have planned this for 14 years, and they have decided to save water upstream- Lake Oahe, Lake Sakakawea and Fort Peck Reservoir. This article tells that the river plan is to build artificial reservoirs and these will change the flow channels. It is not natural, but brings convenience to people’s lives. But there are some problems. The Missouri River goes through several states; if the reservoirs acquire water from upstream, the people downstream will lack the resource of water. Farmers need this river to grow their crops, businessmen need this river to transfer their products, and many kinds of fish need this river to survive. The environmental experts are worried about this plan, which will decline the amount of wildlife because the channels will change.

Dams will be helpful to improve the problem we are facing today- the shortage of resource of water. People can not live without water; moreover, it is an industrial world, and everything, like plants, agriculture, animals and human depend on water, but now we are unable to distribute it very well.

For getting more convenience and requirement, we need some river plans. This river plan has been designed for a long time, but it has not started; consequently, the problem of shortaage of water has still existed. People complain about this problem and are confused that we are in the basin of the Missouri River, but we have to stand the embarrassment of water being limited. The corps have to make sure that it is necessary to bring more water to people.

Second, the first thing environmental workers are always thinking about is how to protect the animals and nature, instead of improving people’s lives. In this article, they announced the disadvantages of this plan repeatedly, and they hope to affect people to oppose the corps. If people can not have enough demand for basic life, we will not have energy to take care of other things.

Finally, we are not able to satisfy everyone, but we can do our best to decrease the harm to other people, and then think about how to reduce the effect on the wildlife. The environmental groups have the right to help birds and fish, and suggest that the government do something to protect them. This is a free country; everyone can discuss the policy, and then reveal whether they like it or not. Therefore, the government has to choose the best opinion and make people’s lives better.

Although the river plan will hurt the downstream, it will solve the drought problem and use the water in order. This is what we can do now, and with the technology developing, we will find the way to make the situation in wildlife and business better and better.

Reference:
Lambrecht, B. (2004, Mar. 19). Corps is ready to adopt river plan, but controversy continues to flow. St. Louis Post- Dispatch, p. A1. Retrieved from LexisNexis.